The present invention is directed at mild shampoo compositions that are economical, have excellent in-use properties, provide enhanced conditioning benefits. The compositions have low ocular irritation potential and are particularly suitable for use by children.
Mild or tear-free shampoos are well known in the art. Many have exceptional mildness and their tear-free benefits make them well suited to shampooing the hair of infants and very young children. However, traditional tear-free compositions do not lather particularly well nor do they provide effective hair conditioning and styling benefits.
There is a growing popularity among older children and teenagers for gentle, tear-free shampoos that are designed for them but provide the copious lather and conditioning/detangling benefits delivered by adult shampoos. This has become especially important in view of recent fashion trends towards longer hair and the wide spread use of blow-drying.
A second problem encountered with traditional tear-free shampoos concerns economy in use. Children and teenagers tend to shampoo their hair more frequently than adults do. Furthermore, because these compositions do not foam particularly well and are frequently thin, they tend to be overdosed to achieve a reasonable level of foam. Consequently, traditional tear-free shampoos are not perceived to be effective and economical (especially by parents) which tends to limit their use to infants and very small children.
One objective of the present invention is a mild, tear-free shampoo composition that has excellent in-use properties especially rich voluminous foam.
Another objective is a mild, tear-free shampoo composition that provides hair conditioning and detangling benefits even after blow-drying.
A still further objective is a mild, tear-free composition that combines excellent in-use properties with effective hair conditioning/detangling benefits yet is both thick and efficient so that it is economical for use by children and teenagers.
These and other objectives will become clear from the description of the invention.
The following patents and publications have been considered:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,286 describes compositions including surfactants, two cationic conditioning polymers and a volatile silicone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,495,498 describes compositions including water-soluble silicones, a cationic conditioning agent and a detergent.
U.S. Re. 34,584 describes compositions including a surfactant, an insoluble, non-volatile silicone, a suspending agent and water. The suspending agents are long-chain acyl derivative or long-chain amine oxide.
None of the references cited above teaches the specific combination of ingredients at the critical ratios disclosed herein.